Month: December 2015

My review of 2015 year in review posts from a variety of sources. Enjoy. CBS News medical stories of 2015. N.Y. Times take on 2015’s the top health and medical stories. Best Marginal Revolution posts. Managed Care Matters update on the ACA: Part I and Part II. The Economist: Best books of 2015. Incidental Economist…

In recent years, there has a been a trend towards patient-centered care focusing on caring for a patient holistically. For instance, a NEJM perspective piece by Porter states: Accountability for value should be shared among the providers involved. Thus, rather than “focused factories” concentrating on narrow groups of interventions, we need integrated practice units that are…

Despite the large number of illnesses defined by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) disease coding system, health systems need to know how many encounters they are likely to experience each month. One gauge for this is the prevalence of sickness in the population. A paper by White et al.…

A commentary article by Straube and Fan (2015) in the Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology finds that Santa Claus faces serious health problems both at home and at work. The commentary points out transportation issues Santa Claus faces on delivery night, such as the lack of seatbelts and airbags, and whether or not Rudolph’s nose provides sufficient light…

In September 2015, 267 economists from 44 countries, led by Lawrence H. Summers of Harvard University, signed the Economists Declaration on Universal Health Coverage, which calls on global policymakers to prioritize a pro-poor pathway to universal health coverage as an essential pillar of sustainable development. The full text is here. An excerpt is below: Universal…

NPR reports that the developing world that cancer rates are increasing in the developing world. In fact: The majority of cancer cases — 57 percent — now occur in low- and middle-income countries. And 65 percent of cancer deaths worldwide occur in these countries, according to an analysis by the American Cancer Society. But there’s…

Kaiser Permanente is opening a medical school in 2019. How will the school be different from current medical schools? The L.A. Times reports: …its approach will differ markedly from that of many established medical schools. It will hew closer to the company’s commitment of rapidly adopting new technology and adhering to the latest medical evidence…